Ifalna & Gast
by Mr. Ite
Summary: A re-imagining of FF7's backstory in Shakespearean verse. Four scientists find a being buried in a crater and begin to study it, but love, revenge, betrayal, war, and dark magic lead them down the path to ruin.


**Author's Note:** Hi everyone. In a midnight fury, I wrote the first act of a Shakespearean tragedy. It is based upon the infamous Jenova Project, but also touches on the War of the Gi and Holzoff's backstory. I realize that Shakespeare nerd and video game fan don't always go hand in hand, so I will briefly give a run-down of what you may have missed in highschool.

Spelling and grammar in Shakespeare's time wasn't a new thing, but proper spelling and grammar weren't as strictly enforced. Because of that, words in old texts can sometimes be capitalized, sometimes elongated - this is not a mistake! It's meant as a kind of note for the actor, to punctuate or elongate the speaking of the word. I have followed those rules in doing so here, to best emulate what I think the characters are feeling.

Also, "iambic pentameter" was the basic structure of Shakespearean verse (da-DA-da-DA-da-DA-da-DA-da-DA) but, in his plays, if lines are short or long, that means that the character is either overflowing with emotion or holding back (see the "what light through yonder window breaks" speech in Romeo & Juliet for good examples of both). Also switching to trochaic is an easy way to signify a shift in thought or the skip of a heartbeat. Newer texts (as in, 1800s on) have 'fixed' the mistakes but I prefer the original texts, and this play is trying to emulate that style, which is full of bluster and raw, bawdy shit. Not the dry, high-brow text the Victorians would have you believe it was.

In short, it's best if you read this out loud! Maybe with a friend or two. Throw a party or something.

One final note about being OOC: yeah, okay, it's kind of necessary to do that if I'm going to have Hojo speak entirely in verse. I believe I stayed true to at least the arc and the essence of each character, and gave people something fun to read. It sure was fun to write! I'm planning on doing the other four acts, just to practice writing in verse.

THE TRAGICALL HISTORIE OF

**IFALNA & GAST**

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

GAST, a scientist

HOJO, his young partner

LUCRECIA, assistant to Hojo

IFALNA, assistant to Gast

VINCENT VALENTINE, a Turk

HOLZOFF, a northman

YAMSKI, a northman

BUGENHAGEN, a retired scientist

SETO, a warrior beast

NANAKI, his son

EXCAVATOR

SCIENTISTS and DIGGERS

**ACTUS PRIMUS**

_(A snowy crater. Enter SCIENTISTS and DIGGERS. Then enter HOLZOFF and YAMSKI.)_

_HOLZ. _The Shinra Company is at our Glacier.  
>Their scientists and diggers rape the land<br>so tell me, Yamski, what are we to do?  
>I know thou hast been at their beck and call,<br>Providing shelter, meat and mead to all  
>who ask for it. Has Shinra's Greene embrace<br>relaxed thy northern loyalties?

_YAMS._ Thou know'st I live and dye by northern law  
>and Shinra's grip on th'world has never crossed<br>the Em'rald sea 'fore now. But Thinke, if we  
>refused them comforts and our succor, bar'd<br>our wintry doors, and spoke of northern law,  
>they would plague us, such they did Wutai.<br>That southron country with rebellious armes  
>did strike and was struck back upon tenfold.<p>

_HOLZ._ I might have banked upon thy words, had banks  
>not set upon thee previously.<p>

_YAMS._ Shinra came to our door, Holzoff. If thou thinks't  
>that thou hast kept thy honour by having kept<br>thy wary wallet thin, pray tell me why  
>thou hast thy life amidst of Shinra's hirelings?<br>Those savages from tribes along our shores.

_HOLZ._ And thou, my friend, thinks't bowing at their sight  
>and taking greener gratitude than I<br>makes thee righteous?  
>Sit on thy gil.<p>

_YAMS._ I will, good sir, and think me right in that  
>For Shinra's wallet thins as mine grows mighty fat.<p>

_HOLZ._ Hark, here come the leaders of the dig  
>We'll speak of northern retribute anon.<p>

_(Enter GAST and HOJO)_

_GAST._ How now, good Yamski? Holzoff?

_YAMS._ Professor Gast and Hojo, my good sirs,  
>how fares the expedition?<p>

_HOJO._ Well enough.  
>Thy comforts have been most appreciated<br>this last long fortnight of our expedition.  
>Expect that Shinra will reward thee well.<p>

_HOLZ._ And you expect the same.

_GAST._ How so?

_YAMS._ With comforts and our guidance through this glacier!  
>Its perils and its wonders do contend<br>with all the magic of technology.  
>The spirit world's beyond, sirrahs, beware,<br>Be sure of foot, of mind, and take you care  
>of your hearts, lest they be themselves ensnared<br>by witch or magicke wizard of the snow.

_GAST._ Thou frightens me not.

_YAMS._ Thou'rt surely bold, I know.  
>Behold the Crater that I spoke of yesterday<br>tis wide and deep, as if to dig for thee!

_HOJO._ E'en Nature lends her succor to our cause!

_YAMS._ And so, as promised, we have led you here  
>our goode and generous souls with thee in mind,<p>

_GAST._ Yes, yes, see Chloe at our camp in town  
>say Gast approved another ten score gil.<p>

_HOJO._ The password of today, good sirs, is Mog.

_GAST._ If we return to find a penny more  
>removed from Shinra's bank, we will have 'wordes.<br>Go to, good sirs, we'll see you on return.

_YAMS._ Fare thee well! If they survive, then we  
>will fix another end for them.<p>

_HOLZ._ I took thee for a hare, mayhaps the green  
>I thought reflected in thine Eyes is truly<br>what's beneath, th'pois'nous peal of malbor's skin

_YAMS._So smile with me, my hare, and we'll be beasts within.

_(Exeunt all but GAST and HOJO)_

_HOJO. _Well, my friend, shall we begin descending?  
>Aye, let's.<p>

_GAST._ This chille disheartens all my creaking bones  
>And makes them hollowe as this barren earth.<p>

_HOJO._ Aye. The ayre Stings.

_GAST._ Not just the ayre, young Hojo, but all Force  
>of old Kjata's ellments seem to pale<br>and quake in holes as deepe as this.  
>I fear this northern slab shall buy us both<br>for monuments of ice.

_HOJO._ Ha! Doctor Gast,  
>Kjata may have lost his hope in thee,<br>but where the Bull leaves naught but cold and Stale  
>for tryed professors such as Thy good grace,<br>It only serves to Burn the ice on me:  
>and as Kjata is the bull of youthe<br>he Forsakes me not;  
>My Bones lose not their Fire.<p>

_GAST._ Nor thee thy wit.

_HOJO._ Tis the Bull's Bolts that strike.

_GAST._ You, good sir, are a bolt.  
>You brought us here. I pray you, have you found<br>the specimen for which you burne those Bones?  
>This expedition is to Shinra's purse<br>the very picture of iniquity:  
>I would we did our businesse and were done.<p>

_HOJO._ The cold does not become You, sir.  
>A learned man once took me to his wing<br>and showed me all the corners of the world  
>and how to see them truly: with divine<br>Scientific eyes and hands and Hearts.  
>I loved those wings as his discoveries<br>Truly gave him cause to soar.  
>I prayed to any god to listen and obey<br>when I avowed to be one tenth the man of him:  
>such virtue and judicious grasp of life<br>aroused the vital voltage of my brain  
>until Kjata seemed a cow.<br>Within a fortnight, could those hands and eyes  
>Chill so quick? Could those wings droop and sag?<br>Could that Heart close?

_GAST._ I am sorry to offend.

_HOJO._ Thou 'ffendst me not.  
>Tis Shiva 'ffending through thy blessed mouth.<p>

_GAST._ Out upon her, I say, and let's on.

(_Enter EXCAVATOR)_

_EXCA._ Hail Gast and Hojo!

_GAST._ Lo, what's this?

_EXCA._ My lords!

_GAST._ What lords are we?

_EXCA._ The President's men!

_GAST._ Not lords.  
>We have no holdfasts, banners nor estates.<br>Our lives are quiet servitude in sight  
>of gods and men: and Shinra, God 'mongst men,<br>the president, usurper of the olde  
>traditions. Lords and knightes seem triviall<br>and barbarous to civil eyes as ours.  
>We mighty in our humblenesse, do serve<br>the Shinra first, and Progresse second, last  
>of all ourselves and lordship, sir.<p>

_EXCA._ Not-lords!  
>I come here not to flatter but to bring<br>news of great triumph! A spring  
>there was of water warm as Ifrit's blood,<br>a-bubbling from within a fist of ice  
>and though its grip was steely and unflinching<br>the rime could suffocate no water, nor  
>not any man who touched the tepid waves.<br>I dipped my hand inside the boiling pool  
>and all of Shiva's baiting lifted off<br>my personne, freeing me to live againe:  
>for Shiva's lure's a fatal, nippy touche<br>and were it not for this hot puddle  
>we men would take to madness such as that<br>strange dance her puppets dance when 'ticed into  
>her mortal grip, casting off their garments in a fit<br>of drunken heat in wintry lust, the frosty  
>mouth of her stiffening their limbs<br>until they give their life's blood to it.

_GAST._ Stiff limbs and warm puddles.

_HOJO._ A fascinating tale thou tells, yet what  
>are we to do about this Spring of thine?<p>

_EXCA._ Prithee, good sirs, hear me.  
>I am but one of two-score excavators<br>from settlements along the bony shore  
>of this north continent, all hired to help<br>the search for Hojo's buried specimen.  
>The pool was found our first day on the glacier.<br>Upon my touch of this excited spring  
>a flurried siege of axes launched upon<br>the frozen land, my men-at-arms as keen  
>as their pick-axes: soon I found myself<br>with axe in hand among them, like a battle  
>with bloody yearning charging heaps on heaps<br>and days became nights until the chasm we had fashioned  
>was great enough to rival in its depth<br>e'en this the natural crater of the land,  
>we did such violence to the snow I fear I lost myself<br>as, hammering away, my brandished axe,  
>too hungry to discern that which it fed upon,<br>struck a shriveled figure in the ice.  
>All diggers lent their strength as we exposed<br>a figure unlike any I had seen at least at first  
>it was as if Cerulean had made himself a man<br>or woman we could not discern at first, and still,  
>though the Fyres in me burn for Her<br>and in her presence longing I have never known  
>became the very nature of my hands: parting the snow<br>around her frozen body, eyes seeing th'clearest Sky  
>reflected in her skinne<br>I knew the broken pieces of the world  
>as moving digits in a single clock<br>their cracks and splinters fitting in eachoth'r  
>and not disjointed.<br>There is no Doubt, doctors, that she is Anciente.  
>For something rare and beauteous as she<br>could only come from times ere now, and lost.

_HOJO._ Thank thee for thy paines.

_(Exeunt EXCAVATOR)_

_GAST._ What madnesse drives thine ears to hold their tongues?  
>He may as well have sermoned of Wutai<br>and told us that the gods were Reale,

_HOJO._ And I  
>would have heard him. His passion tells of truths<br>if not of th'world, then of the Minde.

_GAST._ Then thou needst catch him quick to finde  
>a better specimen in him than soothsayr.<p>

_HOJO._ Cans't thou hold thy temperance long enough  
>to let me revel in the what and if?<p>

_GAST._ To do so would be th'sin of Science.

_HOJO._ Nay!  
>What are we but champions of what?<br>Lovers of If? Artists of How? And happiest  
>Students of Why?<p>

_GAST._ Professor Hojo, let us up to th'site  
>to see if student hearts can still delight.<p>

(Exeunt GAST and HOJO. Enter LUCRECIA and IFALNA)

_LUCR._ By my troth, Ifalna, these northern comfortes  
>fail to charm me: what keeps thee in such spirits?<p>

_IFAL._ The pleasure of your company.

_LUCR._ Go to.

_IFAL._ Lucrecia, can you feel this sacred earth?  
>The way it whispers of our Anciente past?<br>We are the dreams those Ancientes had,  
>the quiet murmurs of their eager hearts,<br>compelling them t'enfold themselves in love,  
>and know not why.<br>How could they know that we were in their blood?  
>moving their arms toward their lovers faces,<br>heating up the marrow of their bones,  
>and whisp'ring, begging them to give us life.<br>And here they whisper back, returned to Earth:  
>the very Earth who dreamed of them; they call<br>us back to them, as Earth called them to yield  
>their rebel lives to it.<br>Return'd to dust  
>as all things are, and one day even us.<p>

_LUCR._ I hear no thing.

_IFAL._ I speak no thing, friend.

_LUCR._ What Ancientes lived here bare no semblance t'us  
>For two thousand years have passed since we<br>descended from their line and became human.

_IFAL._ Thou tells it true. Those Anciente men,  
>whom we call Jcetra, are returned to Earth<br>and we to them are as our machinations.

_LUCR._ As robots to their engineers are we  
>to our old Cetra mothers in the ground.<br>But Blinde masters need no reverence,  
>no master asks his robot's worship, nor<br>no robot finds affection for his maker  
>on his springy own.<p>

_IFAL._ Would that they could.  
>Affection needs no spur to prick its flank,<br>think'st thou it doth?

_LUCR._ I think not of't.  
>My Minde was made of sterner stuff that love<br>and should be put to use in worthy fields.  
>Affection is the bulwark of a foole<br>who calls it Castle. Crumble, bulwarke, as  
>thou doth, for I care not for feigning castles.<p>

_IFAL._ A Scientiste is but a named career.  
>One facet of a diamond, pray thee,<br>is it the only part of thee thine eyes can see?

_LUCR._ It is the only facet cleanly cut.

_IFAL._ Diamonds require chiseling.

_LUCR._ Mine doth not.  
>Who calls herself aspiring mother, lover<br>of merely humans? I will birth the world  
>by making love to Progress. Women of<br>the world doth nurse their babes, and men  
>doth nurse their present day alone.<br>A lonely babe Tomorrow is.  
>She hungers for the milke of yesterday,<br>but no one feeds: no drop of it is left  
>from those who would consume it instantly<br>Tomorrow starves whilst we are drunk on love.

_IFAL._ Tomorrow is a full-time job, then?

_LUCR._ Aye.

_IFAL._ Then thou arrivest early. Is there none  
>who could convince you of Today's appeal?<p>

_LUCR._ Would I could find a man who would reveal  
>me for a fraud I'd snatch him up as Titan<br>does the Earth. But no such man exists.

_IFAL._ They say that Hojo has his eye on you.

_LUCR._ They say. And he is not unpleasant, yet  
>his passion unbecomes him.<p>

_IFAL._ There's a jest!  
>If passion unbecame a lover, love<br>would not exist. Is Hojo ugly?

_LUCR._ Nay: yet he slouches. Ugly he is not.

_IFAL._ Marke you his unintelligence?

_LUCR._ Nay twice! His wit doth rival that of mine.

_IFAL._ Pray, what repels you so?

_LUCR._ If I had half the passion he bore me  
>for him, I would agree, Ifalna, yet<br>he thinks not of Tomorrow as I do.

_IFAL._ He may tomorrowe.

_LUCR._ Til then, let's away.  
>This chill may hold us evermore Today.<p>

_(Exeunt LUCRECIA and IFALNA. Enter HOLZOFF and YAMSKI)_

_HOLZ._ Looke ye down into the Crater, Yamski!  
>I see no trace of Hojo nor of Gast.<br>Is it so that they have fall'n?

_YAMS._ I know not. Should they return and finde  
>that we have taken twice the given summe<br>Olde Gast would have us buried in the snow!

_HOLZ. _You have the daggers ready?

_YAMS._ Aye, I do.

_HOLZ._ If they attempt to climb, we cut their ropes.

_YAMS._ And if they make the climb?

_HOLZ._ We cut their throats.  
>After they have been dispatch'd, the hirelings<br>surely will abandon our great glacier.

_YAMS._ And we with pockets full of weighty gil  
>are set for life.<p>

_HOLZ._ Or else for death. But soft!  
>Who comes at us arrears? o'er snowy dune,<p>

_YAMS._ Hold tongue and hide!

_(Enter GAST, HOJO and DIGGERS all carrying pick-axes)_

_GAST._ I feel as giddy as a chocobo!

_HOJO._ Indeede.

_GAST._ We Founde a Cetra in the Snowe.  
>Th'excavator sang us golden truthe<br>out of his rusted pipes!

_HOJO._ The youthe  
>of thee has come againe, dear Gast.<p>

_GAST._ As long as I see Her, my youthe will last  
>until the stars reclaim me, and no cold<br>can touch me where I stand.

_HOJO._ So bold  
>and tall thou standst! Regret'st thee now my zeal<br>in coming to this land?

_GAST._ Good sir, I kneel  
>to thee, who once I called my student, name<br>a prize and I will offer it.

_HOJO._ Verily?

_GAST._ We saw the Queen herself, and touched her skin  
>And chipped away the ice that held her in<br>this damned glacier. Now she's in our hold,  
>and I can study her from this day forth,<br>if Shinra deems it so, and so my mirth  
>makes gen'rous of my happy self.<p>

_HOJO._ There is one thing.

_GAST._ Just name it, and it shall be done.

_HOJO._ Forsooth, tis not a thing, but nothing could  
>repay in greater force and number than<br>this one thing: fair Lucrecia.

_GAST._ What? Madnesse man, thou know'st I cannot give  
>a human being to another one!<p>

_HOJO._ I know'st, although I would thou could'st.

_GAST._ Why ask it of me then?

_HOJO._ Could you entreat  
>with her? She loves you as she does a father<br>and I have seen her oft obeying you  
>when you demand.<p>

_GAST._ All Worke, which she would do without my spur.  
>Arranged marriage is no trifle<p>

_HOJO._ Sir,  
>I only ask you speak to her for me.<br>Insist she be my partner in the lab  
>For the duration of our study on<br>this Queene of ice I led us to.

_GAST._ Aye, there you have some sense.  
>We'll take this Anciente back to Nibelheim<br>I'll partner you, from there the work is thine.

_HOJO._ Oh gracious friend, you've made my life.

_YAMS._ And we now make'st death.

_GAST._ What, ho!

_HOJO._ Treachery!

_GAST._ Why stand'st thou in the shadow of the crater  
>with daggers at the ready?<p>

_HOLZ._ Methought I heard thee speak of taking Ancientes  
>out from hallowed resting grounds<br>and cutting them with Shinra knives. For that  
>villaines, you die! Yamski to armes!<p>

_YAMS._ I'll show the North the difference of our blood  
>Which one is green and red, for good.<p>

_(Fight, and YAMSKI slain)_

_HOJO._ My pick-axe doth unearth thy false lips: Hojo  
>sheds no blood today on northern snow.<br>But thine is red, at least thou died with half  
>a truth in tongue, I wish thou'd done it fast.<p>

_HOLZ._ Alack!

_HOJO._ Peace, slave! He cut his verie rope  
>when he did toy with ours.<p>

_GAST._ Thy dagger on the ground, and we'll not harm thee.

_(enter LUCRECIA and IFALNA)_

_LUCR._ What's happened?

_HOJO._ Pray shield thine eyes! If sighting a cadaver  
>pales not thy perfect cheeks, this treachery<br>incarnate, Holzoff, is no sight for thee!

_LUCR._ All reason to look harder.

_HOLZ._ My dagger gone, I'm at your mercy, sir.

_GAST._ Then be thou as thy dagger, gone, from here.  
>To all, and Holzoff, this I do decree<br>In th'name of Shinra, here then there shall be  
>a town reborn, of diggers and the tribes<br>from whence they came, and let the city scribes  
>write this a single caveat to'th deal,<br>Holzoff is exile, never welcome whilst  
>the spirits of the north make thick the wild.<br>He shall inhabit only wand'ring hence,  
>til Shinra pardon him for recompense.<p>

_HOLZ._ If wildernesse I must inhabit, ne'er  
>let Shinra's toothy eye be fixed there.<p>

_LUCR._ Hie you, pernicious fiend! To'th white, and death!  
>We'll hear no malbor words nor malbor breath.<p>

_(Exeunt HOLZOFF)_

_IFAL._ He's gone.

_GAST._ And so are we, to Nibelheim.  
>Come, friends. I am too weary of this clime.<br>It smells too much of death.

_(End of ACTUS PRIMUS)_


End file.
